ACLU Fact Checks Facebook’s Response to Open Letter
Facebook is still talking through their hat in response to the open letter sent by privacy organizations on June 16. The ACLU checks the facts in Facebook’s claims. Guess what? Facebook continues to cover up the facts: they are either lying, or don’t know how their own technology works.
Some samples:
Facebook Says: It has heard the concerns of the privacy groups and plans to address them in an upcoming revamped data permissions model.
The Facts: The announced plan is an incomplete solution that does woefully little to resolve the app gap. Your personal information may still fall through the privacy cracks when your friends run apps because, by default, Facebook will continue to treats apps your friends run like it treats your friends themselves, giving those apps access to most of your information without your notice or consent.
[…]
Facebook Says: Instant personalization is “widely misunderstood,” and that there is no privacy concern because the only information that instant personalization partners receive from Facebook is public information.
The Facts: When you visit an ordinary web site, the site doesn’t automatically know who you are. But when you go to an “instant personalization” site while logged into your Facebook account, the site knows exactly who you are, including your real name, profile picture, and other public information on your Facebook profile.
It’s like entering a store that automatically scans your wallet or purse when you walk through the door and then links everything you do in the store to your personal information—without first asking you for permission.
[…]
Facebook Says: Its social plugins are just like every other widget on the web.
The Facts: Social plugins are different from other widgets on the web because they can connect your online activity to all of the personal information attached to your Facebook account, creating an even more detailed profile of you. Facebook can track every time you visit a page with a social plugin, even just a “like” button, and connect this activity to your Facebook account—even if you don’t use the plugin or click on the button at all. Web site developers who don’t recognize this distinction may be violating their own principles or privacy policies unknowingly by using the like button and other social plugins.
[..]
Facebook Says: It has taken away privacy settings for information like name, profile picture, and network because “it has been [its] experience that people have a more meaningful experience on Facebook if they share some information about themselves.”
The Facts: Facebook’s refusal to give you control over every piece of information that they share is inconsistent with its stated principle that “People should have the freedom to decide with whom they will share their information, and to set privacy controls to protect those choices.” Not allowing users to choose for themselves is simply contrary to this policy.
[…]
Facebook Says: It imposes no restrictions on users that prevent them from exporting the content that they have posted themselves on Facebook and has open APIs that permit applications to export this information.
The Facts: Facebook does not provide its own tool to automatically export your data. Thus, if you want to port your data from Facebook to another service, you must rely on workarounds involving some “approved” automated third party application to export your own content and connections — or get Facebook’s permission to create your own tool to do so.
[and everytime someone invents such a tool, they block it.]
It’s time for the Justice Department to take a look at Facebook’s continued malfeasance.
- New Facebook ‘Permissions’ Feature Requires Apps To Tell You What Data They Use (huffingtonpost.com)
- Facebook Just Launched Simplified Application Permissions (thenextweb.com)
- Take Control Of Your Facebook Privacy With PrivacyDefender (makeuseof.com)
- Facebook launches ‘permissions’ for apps, websites (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
